Review of Star Trek Voyager: A Vision of the Future

The Making of Star Trek, by the same author (under another name) was an eye-opening book for me. Like many viewers, I had accepted the brilliant series with no real understanding of how it all came about. When I read The Making of Star Trek, I learned everything from the nature of McCoy’s instruments, which were almost all made from fancy salt shakers; to fan mail from kids who wanted working phasers. The vision of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry was intermingled with fascinating facts about the production itself. And, as a fan, I loved it, but I also loved it, because it gave me a real appreciation for all that goes into making a television series.

Some thirty years later, three veteran producers of Star Trek the Next Generation and Deep Space Nine began kicking around ideas for a fourth series, which was ultimately named after the ship, Voyager.

Unfortunately, the author who recorded this process did not filter enough. Yes, I wanted to know about the casting problems, but I don’t need to know the names of the security guards on the set. Honestly, there is just too much information in this book. Unfortunately, there are no doubt some nifty tidbits that were not mentioned, so that literally everyone associated with Voyager would have a mention in this book.

Poe’s record of the process of creating Voyager is worth reading, but it could have been so much better with some judicious editing. I’d love to say it is a great book, but it isn’t. On the other hand, I did enjoy parts of it, such as the description of how Kate Mulgrew quickly pulled the cast together and helped get filming on track for the January debut.

Sometimes, one can’t see the forest for the trees, and that’s the problem with this vision of the future.